High Asia cryo-hydrology: processes and impacts across elevations

The river basins of High Mountain Asia (HMA) are characterized by extreme altitude ranges, integrating cryospheric processes in remote headwaters with ecosystems and society in lowland reaches. They are among the most important globally in terms of water supply, while also being among the most vulnerable to climate change. The region’s remoteness and complexity present major challenges for both scientific understanding and water resource forecasting.

In this session we integrate diverse scientific and practical perspectives of HMA’s mountain systems. Submissions could relate to observations (e.g. remote sensing, field measurements); numerical modelling (e.g. landscape elements or catchments); data integration (e.g. data-driven inference, data assimilation); and impact assessment (e.g. ecosystems, hydropower, geohazards). By drawing together these threads, we aim to promote interactions bridging scale and disciplinary boundaries to, for example, exchange on lessons learned, discuss multifaceted climate change impacts and consider prospects for operational water resource forecasting.